Cajuns’ Hitting Woes Continue, Tech Wins 6-3

Louisiana Tech tallied four runs in the seventh inning to break a 1-1 tie and went on to defeat the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns 6-3 Wednesday night at M. L. "Tigue" Moore Field.

Marshall Boggs led off the seventh against Cajun reliever Eric Carter (2-1) with a double. Chandler Hall then hit a comebacker that Carter bobbled and Boggs scored when Brenn Conrad threw the ball past first base, sending Hall to second.  Pinch hitter Bryce Stark sacrificed Hall to third and pinch hitter Raphael Gradu singled to give Tech a 3-1 lead.  Sean Ulrich then doubled home Gradu and Jordan Washam greeted Dylan Moore with another double to make the score 5-1.

"If we're going to live on the razor's edge because we aren't hitting, then we need to pitch and play defense," Cajuns' head coach Tony Robichaux said.  "We have to make that play with no outs. Instead we boot it and then compound it by throwing the ball away.  We're having to play an imperfect game perfect(ly) and we weren't able to do that."

Carter was charged with four runs, three earned, in just 1/3 of an inning in taking his first loss of the season.

Mark Baughman (1-0) was the beneficiary of the outburst and picked up the win in relief, allowing just one walk in his two innings of work.  Graham Ahlrich pitched the final three innings and earned the save, giving up two unearned runs.

Louisiana Tech (25-13) got on the board in the first inning against Cajuns' starter Hogan Harris when Jonathan Washam singled with two out, moved to second on a single by Cody Daigle and scored on Chase Lunceford's single.  But Harris retired nine of the last ten batters he faced.  Jevin Huval then came in and allowed just one hit in two innings.

"They came out and dominated their opponent," Robichaux said of the two.  "Hogan has now become a four pitch guy with velo and when he's got it going, he's tough.  And Huval had all his pitches working, too.  We just didn't do a good job after that."

Brenn Conrad tied the game in the fourth inning against Lafayette High product Adam Derouen with a home run to right field, his fourth of the year.  But that would be the Cajuns' last hit until the eighth inning.  In the eighth, Johnny Rizer reached on a two out error and Alex Pinero hit a two run bomb to left to cut the lead to 5-3.  Louisiana Tech got its final run in the ninth on a solo homer by Ulrich off reliever Reagan Bazar for the final margin.

The Cajuns managed only four hits in the game, and have just sixteen hits in their last four games, a .138 batting average.

Louisiana (27-15) has now lost three of their last four games and they head to Arlington to take on the Mavericks of UT Arlington in a three game series this weekend at Clay Gould Ballpark on the UTA campus.